food for thought.

[EJ]

On Friday evening, May 8, you can see PERC Executive Director Terry Anderson in prime time on ABC's "20/20" with host John Stossel. As part of a special segment on saving endangered species, Anderson recommends markets as the best way to preserve those parts of our environment that we value most and that includes endangered species. The show airs at 10 p.m. ET.

ABC promotes the show as follows:

THE BEST WAY TO SAVE MANY ENDANGERED SPECIES IS TO EAT THEM. International bans on the trade of rare animal parts (tiger organs, elephant tusks, rhino horns) have been about as successful as the international war on drugs. Why? Because wherever there is a demand strong enough, market forces overwhelm law enforcement. Terry Anderson of PERC, the Property and Environmental Research Center, claims that governments have repeatedly failed when they tried to save animals by banning their sale -- it failed with the Colobus monkey in West Africa Å* with the alligator in China Å* and now, with the tiger in Asia. It's quite the conceit that a few conservation groups think a government decree can change history, and get a billion plus people to change their habits. By contrast, does America have a shortage of chickens? No, because people own them and eat them. Allowing private owners to sell animals for food or tourism saved the rhino and the elephant in Africa, and the bison in America. It could save the tiger too, if environmental groups would drop their resistance.